With the increasing concerns regarding energy costs, many individuals are looking for economical alternatives to meet heating demands. One approach has been to limit the area heated with the use of portable/space heaters. Portable heaters are generally designed to heat a smaller area such as a room or a couple of rooms, but normally are not intended to heat an entire dwelling. However, portable heaters are known that are capable of heating relatively large areas such as 800-1000 square feet, for example. In addition, as the name implies, portable heaters can usually be moved from one location to another with relative ease. Therefore, if a user moves from one area to another, the portable heater can also be moved. The use of portable heaters allows users to control the local room temperature without incurring the increased heating costs of maintaining the entire house or office at a desired temperature.
Although various sources of energy are available for portable heaters, many indoor units are electrically powered and include an electrically powered radiant heating element. Fuel burning units are known, such as kerosene heaters, however, such units require additional ventilation to prevent fumes from rising to a dangerous level. Electrically powered units come in various configurations and the heating elements typically comprise high resistance wiring or quartz halogen lamps, for example. Other configurations are known and each heating element includes specific advantages. Therefore, the particular heating element chosen may depend on the power requirements as well as the desired temperature range capable of each heating element.
Typical prior art portable heaters also include an airflow generator, such as a fan to draw ambient air from the environment and pass the air over the heating element before discharging the heated air to the surrounding area. The ambient air may be substantially colder than the desired temperature and a single pass over the heating element often requires extended periods of time to raise the room temperature to the desired temperature.
Therefore, there is a need in the art to provide a portable heater that can adequately warm the local air to a desired temperature in a relatively short amount of time. The present invention solves this and other problems and an advance in the art is achieved. The present invention provides a portable heater that includes an airflow path that warms incoming air prior to reaching the heating element. The heating elements can therefore increase the temperature of the output air more than realized in the prior art.